First Twinkies, now Starbucks gift cards.
On Thursday, Starbucks unveiled 5,000 special edition $450 gift cards made of steel and sold only on Gilt.com. Those sold out in less than one minute and now coffee — or steel, for that matter — aficionados are bidding more than $1,000 for the cards today on Ebay.
The steel card, which has a $400 value and costs an extra $50 to make, comes will all the benefits of the Starbucks gold-level membership card, like free refills and bonus gifts. Other than that, well, it’s pretty much a normal gift card … made of some shiny steel.
Gilt.com executive vice president Jason Goldberger told USA Today that the card is all about exclusivity.
“When you’re waiting in line at Starbucks, the next person in line won’t have it,” he said.
Since this experiment is apparently going so well for Starbucks, will selling super premium cards become a model for other companies?
Previously on GeekWire: Starbucks vets emerge with 10 million for mobile payments startup Cardfree
